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Rutgers Lax commits Bobby Russo & Jonathan Taub

Cool. Either of them face off specialists?

I know your question was in jest, however, the kid from Lenape who had some insane face-off numbers is going to St. Joes next year. I hope who ever we bring in can get the job done.

With regard to FOGOs, I'm not hearing much buzz (in NJ) when it comes to the top guys going to RU. Not that I'm in recruiting circles, however, our HS plays most of the top teams so the kids know who is who from film study and game day prep, etc.
 
Cool. Either of them face off specialists?
Nope and the top guys are not going to RU. The Lenape kid was pretty good but he benefited from playing in the conference he played in the Pingry kid was pretty good as well.
I know that they are excited about their in coming class as well as the Peterson kid who came early and redshirted. I would expect him and Sprock to get a long look at midfield. The middie from Delaware is a big strong kid but he many need to work on his conditioning before he can really play at a high level but he could see time early on EMO.
I really like the poles they brought in last year to go along with the kids coming this year.
 
Cali, for the fans like me who don’t follow HS Lax, what are your thoughts about our incoming recruits?

Very good class. Every kid I watched popped on film. I know the staff is excited about them.

Heard we picked up a long pole transfer from Providence who is supposed to be very good.
 
Is this him? Or is this another transfer?


It's another transfer. From Providence College. A pole who faces off. The Jersey lax guys super high on him. I will let one of them post about him. Apparently he is undersized, but super athletic and plays with an edge.

Watched the highlights of Kamish. Wow. This kid pops. The last pieces we are in need of is those big, strong middies who can run by their guys. We have those coming now.

Mazzone is an all time great at RU. He will be missed. This next group of middies is going to be different though. They are more of what used to be referred to as "Acc middies". Meaning they are big, strong, and can run.

We are going to be young, but the talent pool has never been higher. Our D is shaping up to be really good. And deep. Let's not forget that Francowiak is back from his mission. He made the all B1G tourney team. As a freshman. Might be a little rusty but you have to think he has matured physically. Kid is an athlete.
 
It's another transfer. From Providence College. A pole who faces off. The Jersey lax guys super high on him. I will let one of them post about him. Apparently he is undersized, but super athletic and plays with an edge.

Watched the highlights of Kamish. Wow. This kid pops. The last pieces we are in need of is those big, strong middies who can run by their guys. We have those coming now.

Mazzone is an all time great at RU. He will be missed. This next group of middies is going to be different though. They are more of what used to be referred to as "Acc middies". Meaning they are big, strong, and can run.

We are going to be young, but the talent pool has never been higher. Our D is shaping up to be really good. And deep. Let's not forget that Francowiak is back from his mission. He made the all B1G tourney team. As a freshman. Might be a little rusty but you have to think he has matured physically. Kid is an athlete.
The kid who is coming is Zach Masessa he is a pole from Montgomery and he is very good. He was on the same team as the Reinson kid who played a lot of pole at Hopkins this year as a freshman. We played them twice last year and he was there best player, fast athletic tough as nails. He faces off with his pole and Montgomery used three poles on the face offs ( yes that is very unusual but there poles were there best athletes) most of the time you only face off with a pole if your Fogo is having trouble winning. Masessa was the exception he was their primary faceoff guy and was very good at it as he could get the ball to very good spots and win the ball cleanly for himself, ( this is uncommon for a pole). He will be an excellent compliment to Pless. I could see him being the second option on the face offs as well.
I think this pickup along with the Middie from
Detroit as well as the return of Frankowiak and the goalie more than make up for the kids who are transferring out.
Cali is right that B.B. has been looking to get bigger at the midfield and he is getting closer to what he wants has the kids coming in are big dudes. I stood next to Joe Peterson ( freshman who redshirted last year) and he is every inch of 6’3”. If you look at Kamish he look like a right handed version of Casey Rose very nice pick up[/QUOTE]
 
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The kid who is coming is Zach Masessa he is a pole from Montgomery and he is very good. He was on the same team as the Reinson kid who played a lot of pole at Hopkins this year as a freshman. We played them twice last year and he was there best player, fast athletic tough as nails. He faces off with his pole and Montgomery used three poles on the face offs ( yes that is very unusual but there poles were there best athletes) most of the time you only face off with a pole if your Fogo is having trouble winning. Masessa was the exception he was their primary faceoff guy and was very good at it as he could get the ball to very good spots and win the ball cleanly for himself, ( this is uncommon for a pole). He will be an excellent compliment to Pless. I could see him being the second option on the face offs as well.
I think this pickup along with the Middie from
Detroit as well as the return of Frankowiak and the goalie more than make up for the kids who are transferring out.
Cali is right that B.B. has been looking to get bigger at the midfield and he is getting closer to what he wants has the kids coming in are big dudes. I stood next to Joe Peterson ( freshman who redshirted last year) and he is every inch of 6’3”. If you look at Kamish he look like a right handed version of Casey Rose very nice pick up
[/QUOTE]

Who is transferring out? Is there an article somewhere that I missed? Thx!
 

Who is transferring out? Is there an article somewhere that I missed? Thx![/QUOTE]


Thinking he meant "graduating."
 
Welp...
Well what? It is not my place to announce that. The kids who are transferring will probably want to wait until they select a new school before making it public, but I will tell You that none of them are starters or kids who played significant Minutes last year.

I said welp... not well. Kind of like, yikes :)

Appreciate your added insights though. Good to know. Thank you.
 
"Well what? It is not my place to announce that. The kids who are transferring will probably want to wait until they select a new school before making it public, but I will tell You that none of them are starters or kids who played significant Minutes last year."

Figured they were back up upperclassmen who see the writing on the wall. We keep injecting young talented recruits that fit and it sort of pushes those that want playing time out.
 
One fits that bill. Another is in a more unique position.
Cali is right about the situation but I count 3 not 2 but we can debate the third one.

Fun fact Taub and Russo were the 3rd and 4th pokes taken in this class and all four were All americans in their respective states.
 
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Our D is going to be nasty in the next couple of years. If we can continue with good goalie play while finding a fogo, Brian will have the team to fully implement the style he wants to play. Buckle up.
 
Our D is going to be nasty in the next couple of years. If we can continue with good goalie play while finding a fogo, Brian will have the team to fully implement the style he wants to play. Buckle up.
That's what I'm not understanding regarding finding an ace FOGO. You could argue we were probably a tourney team 3 years in a row if we had a top FOGO. Is Brecht just striking out on recruiting them or do we need a top dollar FO coach (Nardella?)
 
Maybe some of it is coaching, I don't know. I look at fogo's like OL in football. They are simply hard to project at the next level.

Nardella was incredible. I guarantee you he wasn't on some must have list coming out of high school.

We have a very strong history of faceoff guys though, dating back to the 80's. It's an area we need to do better in. Brian knows all this. It's not surprise. To play the way he wants, goalie and faceoffs are extremely important.
 
being it wasn't addressed in any of the articles i read about the Kamish transfer, i figured I'd ask here. Do lax transfers have to sit out a season like BB and FB?
 
being it wasn't addressed in any of the articles i read about the Kamish transfer, i figured I'd ask here. Do lax transfers have to sit out a season like BB and FB?
Only if they are transfers within B1G, and even then, grad transfers can go anywhere without sitting.
 
Face off guys are a crap shoot. A lot of times it is about match ups. I have seen one kid dominate a kid and that same kid get crushed by another, that’s why Baptiste is so unique as he was successful against most everyone. But, the best face off guy in the country over the last four years was going to a D3 school until the middle of his senior year. A couple of years ago Rutgers had signed the top faceoff kid in NJ but the kid flipped when Cornell offered late and he has done little at Cornell.
I think Rutgers has a couple of pretty good young kids but they need to get bigger and stronger as facing off is a fiat fight every time. There was a kid in NJ this year who faced off at the end of the year with a broken ankle, routinely they will have injuries to wrists and shoulders and just keep going.

There is a good Fogo at Bridgewater who is a 2020 that Rutgers likes. Good face off kid.
 
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One type of player in particular I'd like to see RU pursue or mold into is what I like to call a power attackman. Think like a power forward in basketball, a big physical, mean, bruiser. Someone 6 foot 4, 225 lbs of pure muscle that makes life miserable for defenders and poles, like a Dylan Molloy or Ben Reeves. When I start coaching lax I want to stick the biggest, strongest, meanest player on the team in that "power attackman" position.
 
Reeves isn’t a really a power player. He has power no question, but his greatest strength are his speed and skill.

Malloy is a bruiser, but again, his skill level exceeds that. Power without a ton of skill in an attacan would be a detriment.
 
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One type of player in particular I'd like to see RU pursue or mold into is what I like to call a power attackman. Think like a power forward in basketball, a big physical, mean, bruiser. Someone 6 foot 4, 225 lbs of pure muscle that makes life miserable for defenders and poles, like a Dylan Molloy or Ben Reeves. When I start coaching lax I want to stick the biggest, strongest, meanest player on the team in that "power attackman" position.
You saw what happened with Molloy against us as we were able to double and triple him as he needed the ball so much. Guys you might have liked were kids like Ian Dingman from Navy or Will Yeatman who went to ND and then Transferred to UMD. Both were very big powerful kids who played with their back to the goal but, the issue is that is not our style of play. We want quick ball movement and the ball tends to die in the stick of players like that. I remember when Yeatman transferred in to UMD and they had another enormous attackman as well and everyone thought they were going to cruise to the title but they did not. attackmen kind of need to fit your style of play.
 
Give me slick, quick guys with great stick skills and ability to finish any day.

There aren't too many highly successful big bruiser attackmen. They are much easier to defend.
 


Scored 19 goals as a freshman offensive middie at Detroit Mercy. I like this pickup a lot...need to replace Mazzone and Kamish might do just that.

Some inside info...

Kamish is a strong athletic middie that plays physical...He is 6'0 and is a well built 190 pounds...
He is a downfield north south player that has good speed and can play between the boxes in transition even though that is not his greatest asset...
If you watch him play on film or live, he is a very strong shooter...a violent, aggressive, hard shooter...he can stretch the field and scored multiple goals from distance...shooting is his strength.
He scored 19 Goals for Detroit Mercy as a freshman and that was playing primarily as a second line middie and he was not used on EMO...which makes his production even more impressive
He scored 2 goals vs Ohio State, 1 goal v ND and was second team All-MAAC as a freshman (also on conference all rookie team)
In UDM's win over Monmouth, he scored an impressive goal to tie the game with 5 seconds left and then scored the game winner on the first shot in OT...he also scored two goals in their OT loss in the MAAC title game...both impressive from distance...
He had multiple options once he was granted his release from Detroit...let's just say that multiple Big Ten teams besides Rutgers were interested in him along with teams from the Big East and Patriot Leagues...
While you never know how the transition will go, I think this will be a very good get for RU Lacrosse...I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out...
As a side note, his brother is a rising senior and is committed to Loyola, Maryland...
 
Some inside info...

Kamish is a strong athletic middie that plays physical...He is 6'0 and is a well built 190 pounds...
He is a downfield north south player that has good speed and can play between the boxes in transition even though that is not his greatest asset...
If you watch him play on film or live, he is a very strong shooter...a violent, aggressive, hard shooter...he can stretch the field and scored multiple goals from distance...shooting is his strength.
He scored 19 Goals for Detroit Mercy as a freshman and that was playing primarily as a second line middie and he was not used on EMO...which makes his production even more impressive
He scored 2 goals vs Ohio State, 1 goal v ND and was second team All-MAAC as a freshman (also on conference all rookie team)
In UDM's win over Monmouth, he scored an impressive goal to tie the game with 5 seconds left and then scored the game winner on the first shot in OT...he also scored two goals in their OT loss in the MAAC title game...both impressive from distance...
He had multiple options once he was granted his release from Detroit...let's just say that multiple Big Ten teams besides Rutgers were interested in him along with teams from the Big East and Patriot Leagues...
While you never know how the transition will go, I think this will be a very good get for RU Lacrosse...I'm looking forward to seeing how it plays out...
As a side note, his brother is a rising senior and is committed to Loyola, Maryland...

Great insight...thanks!

We have any shot at flipping his brother??? Lol...
 
Give me slick, quick guys with great stick skills and ability to finish any day.

There aren't too many highly successful big bruiser attackmen. They are much easier to defend.

2 of the slick, quick guys and a bruiser to play the crease.
 
Attackmen are the most skilled guys, especially a guy on the crease. Soft hands, creative finishes. Need to be more than a "brusier". There are a lot of places for on the field for different types, but the "bruiser" is tough to find a spot for. Especially the way we play. Fast. Need skills to see the field.

AC is exceptional around the crease. The proto type. He isn't a bruiser. He's a skilled finisher.
 
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That's the beauty of the game of lacrosse...good/great players come in all different shapes and sizes...Attack can be big or small, but they all need to have great IQ, vision, hands, quickness and the ability to finish in tight spaces under pressure...Then give me big, strong, fast, athletic middies that can run and can drop the hammer from distance...you have those type of middies and it's amazing how much space opens up for the attack...
 
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